The Short Answer: E-commerce Website Cost
An e-commerce website costs about $360–$1,000 in its first year if you build it yourself on Shopify, $399–$2,999 to have a fixed-price Shopify studio build it, and $5,000–$35,000 from an agency in 2026. Shopify's pricing page puts its Basic plan at $29 a month billed yearly, and Shopify's own blog, citing Storetasker's 2025 rate guide, puts agency store builds at $5,000–$10,000 for a basic build and $15,000–$35,000 for a mid-tier custom one.
Those are other companies' published prices, read November 7, 2026, not ours. Mark Studios builds custom-coded online stores and quotes each one for a fixed scope, so there is no Mark Studios price on this page.
The first-year DIY figure is our calculation: a year of Shopify Basic ($348 billed yearly, $468 billed monthly), a paid theme of $100–$500 or a free one, and a domain at $10–$30 a year, the range Shopify's e-commerce website cost guide gives. It leaves out apps and card fees, which come later in this post.
Store Prices by Route
| Route | Published price | What you get | Your time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build it yourself on Shopify | $360–$1,000 in year one (our calculation) | A store on a free or paid theme, hosting and checkout | You set up every product, page and setting |
| A Fiverr Shopify setup gig | $20–$490 starting prices; median $100 | One seller, scoped per gig | You brief, review and test |
| A fixed-price Shopify studio | $399–$2,999 | A set product count, pages and launch setup | You send products, photos and copy |
| An agency build | $5,000–$35,000 | Customized or custom theme, integrations, launch support | Discovery, design reviews and sign-offs |
| A fully custom store | $20,000–$70,000 for a custom theme; headless $80,000 and up | Design and code built for your catalog | Weeks of reviews |
Some Fiverr links on this page are affiliate links: Mark Studios may earn a commission if you buy through them, at no cost to you.
A Fiverr search for "shopify store setup" returned 76,000+ results, and the 45 gigs on page one listed starting prices of $20–$490. A starting price is the gig's smallest package, so read what that tier includes before you compare it to a studio.
Six studios publish full packages for a new Shopify store:
| Studio | Entry package | Middle | Top |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zilancer | $399, up to 25 products | $699, up to 60 | $999, up to 150 |
| KOMREX | $499, up to 10 products | $1,299, up to 40 | $2,999, unlimited, with brand identity and migration |
| BriefBuilt | $499, one feedback round | $999, two rounds | $1,499, three rounds |
| Shyft Stack | $500, one page and up to 5 products | $1,450, five pages and up to 25 | $2,490 and up, 10+ pages and up to 100 |
| Pixeltree | $999, up to 20 products | $1,999, up to 50 | Custom quote |
| Digital Heroes | $5,000, Theme Store theme, up to 50 SKUs | $15,000, customized theme, two markets | $25,000, custom-built theme |
Read what each price leaves out: KOMREX and Digital Heroes bill the Shopify plan and paid apps separately, and Zilancer adds a 5% payment processing fee at checkout. If you're weighing a marketplace freelancer against a studio, Fiverr vs Upwork vs an agency runs the platform fee math.
At the top end, Teplin publishes its own bands: $5,000–$20,000 for a customized premium theme, $20,000–$70,000 for a custom Online Store 2.0 theme, $50,000–$200,000 or more for a Shopify Plus build and $80,000–$250,000 or more for headless.
The Monthly Bill After Launch
The build is paid once. The platform is paid every month the store is open:
- Shopify: Basic $29, Grow $79 and Advanced $299 a month billed yearly, or $39, $105 and $399 billed monthly. Plus starts at $2,300 a month.
- BigCommerce: Core $29, Growth $79 and Scale $299 a month billed annually, each with a sales cap; Core covers up to $30,000 in trailing 12-month sales and upgrades you to Growth above that.
- WooCommerce: the plugin is free and open source on WordPress, but you pay for hosting, which Shopify's guide puts at $5–$250 a month, plus any paid extensions.
Card fees are the bigger bill once orders arrive. Shopify Payments charges standard online cards 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.7% on Grow, 2.5% on Advanced and 2.25% on Plus. WooPayments charges 2.90% + $0.30 per US card payment. If you take payments through a provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a transaction fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus.
That math settles the plan question. On yearly billing, Grow's lower card rate pays for its higher price once online card sales pass about $25,000 a month, and Advanced only beats Grow above about $110,000 a month (our calculation). Below $25,000, Basic is the cheapest plan to run. Shopify's guide puts a solo store's total monthly costs at $30–$100 and a growing store's at $100–$500 once paid apps, a premium theme and email tools are added.
What Moves the Price
The studio packages show where the money goes:
- Product count. Zilancer's tiers step from 25 to 60 to 150 products, Pixeltree's from 20 to 50, KOMREX's from 10 to 40 to unlimited. Shyft Stack charges $75 for each extra 25 products.
- Theme or custom design. Digital Heroes charges $5,000 on a Theme Store theme and $25,000 for a custom-built one. Paid themes on the Shopify Theme Store cost $100–$500 as a one-time payment; we counted 1,341 paid listings, with a median of $320.
- Markets and integrations. Digital Heroes' $5,000 tier sells in one market and its $15,000 tier in two, with a currency switcher. Shyft Stack and Digital Heroes both quote Shopify Plus, B2B and ERP work separately.
- Migration. Moving from WooCommerce, Wix or another platform is its own package at Digital Heroes, and KOMREX includes it only in its $2,999 tier.
- Feedback rounds. BriefBuilt's three tiers are the same storefront with one, two or three review rounds, a $1,000 spread.
Product photos are yours to supply at these prices: Digital Heroes lists product photography as not included and uploads the photos you provide, and Pixeltree asks for your product photos before it starts. Price them on their own, along with any product videos: our product video cost and brand photography cost guides cover both.
How to Get an Accurate Store Quote
Send these with your first message and the quotes you get back can be compared line by line:
- How many products and variants, and whether they come in a spreadsheet or need to be entered by hand.
- The platform (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce or custom code), or ask for a recommendation in writing.
- Theme or custom: a Theme Store theme set up in your brand, a customized one, or a design built from scratch.
- Pages beyond the store: About, FAQ, a blog and any landing pages, which our landing page design cost guide prices on their own.
- Integrations: email, reviews, subscriptions, shipping, accounting or an ERP.
- What happens after launch: how many days of fixes are included, who updates the store, and who owns the theme, code and accounts.
Where Mark Studios Fits
We build custom-coded websites and online stores with no page builders, set up to rank on Google and to be quoted by answer engines like ChatGPT. You get a flat quote for a fixed scope, not hourly billing, and on final payment you own the site, the code and every account. Because we edit video every day, the homepage hero video and the product demos can come from the same studio; our page for e-commerce brands shows that work. In Palm Beach County, we can also photograph your products on location. We've delivered 8,000+ orders for 4,500+ clients and are Top Rated on Fiverr with a 4.9★ rating; whoever builds your store, count your products and decide theme or custom before you compare quotes. Running a service business with no catalog? Our small business website cost guide covers that build.
The Bottom Line
An e-commerce website costs about $360–$1,000 in its first year to build yourself on Shopify, $399–$2,999 from a fixed-price Shopify studio, and $5,000–$35,000 from an agency, before apps and card fees. In the published packages, product count and theme-versus-custom design set the price, so put both in your brief before you compare totals.
